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In this article, "Why Diverse Books Are Commonly Banned," Maggie Jacoby writes,
The University of Wisconsin’s Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) and publisher Lee & Low have provided statistics from 1994 to 2012 that illustrate that while 37% of the U.S. population are people of color, only 10% of books published focus on multicultural content. In addition, ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, has determined that 52% of the books challenged, or banned, over the past decade are from titles that are considered diverse content. These statistics are troubling and create more questions than answers.
52% of the banned books are diverse? When diverse books are only 10% of the books published? That a call for change!
So this week, read a diverse book, and know that by doing that, you're celebrating our freedom to read.
You can find out lots more about Banned Books Week here.
The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee
1 comment:
Eddie Glaude Jr.'s book *Democracy in Black* explains what's going with this sort of frightening statistic. He calls it the value gap. In the book he builds the case that America has always been built on the underlying premise that people of color are simply worth less than white folks. All kinds of policies, thought patterns, & institutions have been built on the premise. It's doing us in & we don't seem to have the strength or perceptual abilities to face it.
Though Glaude doesn't expand his argument about the value gap to other minority groups, it seems to me (a privileged, cis, anglo guy, that our LGBTQ population & every other minority group fits somehow into the value gap formula.
Thanks for these numbers.
Yikes.
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